| 释义 |
hobby-horse, n.
[f. hobby n.1 + horse.]
†1. A kind of horse: = hobby n.1 1. Obs.
1598Florio, Vbino, a hobbie horse, such as Ireland breedeth. 1609Dekker Gvll's Horne-bk. v. (1812) 130 At the doors, with their masters' hobby-horses, to ride to the new play. 1614B. Jonson Barth. Fair iii. iv. Wks. (Rtldg.) 321/1 A Carroch.. with four pyed hobbyhorses.
2. In the morris-dance, and on the stage (in burlesques, pantomimes, etc.), a figure of a horse, made of wickerwork, or other light material, furnished with a deep housing, and fastened about the waist of one of the performers, who executed various antics in imitation of the movements of a skittish or spirited horse; also, the name of this performer in a morris-dance. Hence, to play (the) hobby-horse: also transf. and fig.
1557Churchw. Acc. St. Mary's in Coates Hist. Reading (1802) 130 Item, payed to the Mynstrels and the Hobby⁓horse on May Day 3s. 1569Nottingham Rec. IV. 132 Gevyn to tow mynstreles, and to them that did play with y⊇ hoby horse, xijd. 1583Stubbes Anat. Abus. i. (1879) 147 Then haue they their Hobby-horses, dragons and other Antiques. 1599B. Jonson Ev. Man out of Hum. ii. i. Wks. (Rtldg.) 37/1 'Sblood! you shall see him turn morrice-dancer, he has got him bells, a good suit, and a hobby-horse. 1645Milton Colast. Wks. (1851) 365 The word Politician is not us'd to his maw, and therupon he plaies the most notorious hobbihors, jesting and frisking in the luxury of his nonsense. 1673Dryden Epil. Univ. Oxford 14 Your delight Was there to see two hobby-horses fight. 1820Scott Abbot xiv, He performed the celebrated part of the hobby-horse. 1821― Kenilw. xxxix, Captain Coxe..executed..a gambade, the like where⁓of had never been practised by two-legged hobbyhorse.
†b. Prov. the hobby-horse is forgot: a phrase app. taken from some old ballad. Obs.
1588Shakes. L.L.L. iii. i. 30 Brag. But O, but O. Boy. The Hobbie-horse is forgot. 1600Kemp Nine Daies Wond. B ij b, With hey and ho, through thicke and thin, the hobby horse quite forgotten. 1602Shakes. Ham. iii. ii. 142 Else shall he suffer not thinking on, with the Hoby-horsse, whose Epitaph is, For o, For o, the Hoby-horse is forgot. 1603B. Jonson Satyr Wks. (Rtldg.) 538/2 But see, the hobby⁓horse is forgot. Fool, it must be your lot, To supply his want with faces, And some other buffoon graces. 1609Old Meg of Herefordsh. for a Mayd Marian in Halliw. Shaks. Wks. 1855 IV. 286 But looke you, who here comes: John Hunt the hobby-horse, wanting but three of a hundred, 'twere time for him to forget himselfe, and sing, but O, nothing, but O, the hobbie-horse is forgotten. a1625Fletcher Women Pleased iv. i, Shall the hobby-horse be forgot then? 1631T. Drue Dutch. of Suff. C iv b (N.), Cl. Answer me, hobbihorse, which way crost he..? Jen. Who do you speake to, sir? We have forgot the hobbihorse.
†c. A hobby-horse dance. Obs.
1670–98R. Lassels Voy. Italy I. 68 Women like those that danced anciently the Hobby-horse in Country Mummings. 1779in Brand Pop. Antiq. (1870) I. 285 We are come over the Mire and Moss; We dance an Hobby Horse; A Dragon you shall see, And a wild Worm for to flee.
†3. transf.
a. A person who plays ridiculous antics; a frivolous or foolish fellow, jester, buffoon.
b. A lustful person; a loose woman, prostitute.
1588Shakes. L.L.L. iii. i. 31 Cal'st thou my loue Hobbi⁓horse? 1599― Much Ado iii. ii. 75, I haue studied eight or nine wise words to speake to you, which these hobby-horses must not heare. 1604― Oth. iv. i. 160. 1609 B. Jonson Sil. Wom. iv. ii. Wks. (Rtldg.) 225/1 What a neighing Hobby-horse is this! a1616Beaum. & Fl. Little Fr. Lawyer v. i, Make 'em tame fools and hobby-horses.
4. A stick with a horse's head which children bestride as a toy horse.
1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie iii. xxiv. (Arb.) 286 King Agesilaus hauing a great sort of little children..tooke a little hobby horse of wood and bestrid it to keepe them in play. 1614B. Jonson Barth. Fair i. Wks. (Rtldg.) 310/2 Did you all think..that I had changed it in the fair, for hobby⁓horses? 1632Sherwood, A (childs) hobbie-horse, baston, ou cheval de bois d'un enfant. 1710Brit. Apollo III. No. 115. 2/2 A Parcel of Hobby-Horses, Rattles and Penny-Fiddles. 1758Johnson Idler No. 13 ⁋3 She saw lady Fondle's eldest son ride over a carpet with his hobby-horse all mire. 1827Hone Table-Bk. I. 685 A street seller of hobby-horses—toys for the children of a hundred years ago.
b. A wooden horse fixed on a ‘merry-go-round’ at a fair.
c. A rocking-horse for the nursery.
1741Gray Let. Poems (1775) 114 A Fair here is not a place where one eats gingerbread or rides upon hobby-horses. 1842S. C. Hall Ireland II. 340 The merry-go-rounds and hobby-horses ‘crammed’. 1894T. Hardy Life's Little Ironies 91 The gyrating personages and hobby-horses.
†5. = hobby n.1 4. Obs. exc. Hist.
1819Gentl. Mag. Feb., A machine denominated the Pedestrian Hobby-horse, invented by a Baron von Drais..has been introduced into this country by a tradesman in Long Acre. 1819(17 Apr.) Title of Plate Johnson's Pedestrian Hobby-horse Riding School, at 377 Strand. 1819The Dandy & the Hobbyhorse 10 For this good turn The sweep would ride The hobby horse And Dandy's pride. 1880Scribner's Mag. Feb. 483 An old farmer..narrated how he had seen the low ‘hobby-horses’ of fifty-nine years ago driven on English roads by thrust of the toes on the ground. 1887Badm. Libr., Cycling 59 The bicycle of the present day is a descendant in the right line of the ‘dandy’ or ‘hobby horse’ of 1819. 1892[see dandy-horse].
6. A favourite pursuit or pastime; = hobby n.1 5. Now rare.
1676Hale Contempl. i. 201 Almost every person hath some hobby horse or other wherein he prides himself. 1768F. Burney Early Diary 17 July, I never pretend to be..above having and indulging a Hobby Horse. a1791Wesley Serm. lxxxiii. ii. 2 Wks. 1811 IX. 434 Every one has (to use the cant term of the day..) his hobby-horse! Something that pleases the great boy for a few hours. 1817Coleridge Biog. Lit. 43 Metaphysics and psychology have long been my hobby-horse. 1867Darwin in Life & Lett. (1887) III. 134, I shall not make so much of my hobby-horse as I thought I could.
7. attrib. and Comb., as hobby-horse dance (see sense 2); hobby-horse man, ˈhobbyhorseman, (a) a man who sells hobby-horses; (b) a man who rode a ‘hobby-horse’ or dandy-horse (see 5); (c) a man who ‘rides a hobby’ (see 6).
1686Plot Staffordsh. 434 They had..a sort of sport..call'd the *Hobby-horse dance, from a person that carryed the image of a horse between his leggs, made of thin boards.
1614B. Jonson Barth. Fair iv. i, I cannot find my ginger⁓bread wife nor my *hobby-horse man, in all the Fair now. 1849Fraser's Mag. XL. 417 Mr. Ellis really abuses these privileges of the hobbyhorseman. 1894Tablet 27 Oct. 663 Taken up by small sectarians and hobbyhorsemen.
Hence ˈhobby-horse v. intr., (a) to play the hobby-horse; (b) to move like a hobby-horse. hobby-ˈhorsical a. (humorous), belonging or devoted to a ‘hobby-horse’ or hobby, crotchety, whimsical; whence hobby-ˈhorsically adv. hobby-ˈhorsiness, devotion to a ‘hobby’.
1636W. Sampson Vow Breaker I iij, Shall the Major put me besides the hobby-horse? let him *hobby-horse at home. 1819Keats Let. (1935) 315 He is not only reconcil'd to it but hobbyhorses upon it. 1830J. Savage Hist. Carhampton 583 A singular custom, called ‘Hobby-horsing’ prevails here [Minehead] on every first day of May. A number of young men..having..made some grotesque figures..rudely resembling men, and horses with long tails..perambulate the town.. performing a variety of antics. 1958M. Pugh Wilderness of Monkeys ii. 22 A sheep started at his cursing and went hobby-horsing down the hill. 1965Sunday Tel. 19 Sept. 24/7 She started to hobby-horse and at the third bounce in the height of the gust of about 30 knots in went her bows. 1967Daily Tel. 30 Mar. 18/6 A continual hobby-horsing which stopped it dead about every third wave it hit.
1761Sterne Tr. Shandy III. xxii, The generous (tho' *hobby-horsical) gallantry of my uncle. 1893Blackie in Westm. Gaz. 15 Mar. 9/1 We quarrel a bit—he is so hobby⁓horsical, you can't avoid it.
1759Sterne Tr. Shandy II. v, What he gained *Hobby-Horsically, as a body-servant. 1771G. Burns in Burns' Wks. (1845) 184 note, Having..become most hobby-horsically attached to the study of medicine.
1881Nature XXIV. 161 Practical, and altogether free from *hobby-horsiness. |